Two years of Georgian legislation targeting critical voices have shut down roughly 80 percent of the country's NGOs, according to Le Monde, with the activists still working describing harassment and expecting arrest at any moment.
Georgia's government has enacted a series of laws in recent years aimed at organisations and voices critical of it, in what Le Monde describes as a crackdown on civil society. The cumulative effect has been measured in closures rather than court cases: within two years, about 80 percent of the country's non-governmental organisations have stopped operating. Those who continue report a climate of harassment and insults, and one activist quoted by Le Monde says they are preparing to be arrested at any moment. The scale of the shutdown makes this less a dispute over individual groups than a question of whether an independent civic sector survives in Georgia at all.
The Georgian government has passed a series of laws to silence critical voices, and within two years about 80 percent of non-governmental organisations have stopped their activities, Le Monde reports. Activists describe harassment and insults, with one quoted as saying: "I am preparing to be arrested at any moment."